WOMAN AND EFFICIENCY

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 18 November 1911, Page 10

WOMAN AND EFFICIENCY

It is not. enough to have knowledge, to possess brains, cleverness, mental agility, to succeed in life to-day, says a writer in an English newspaper. The man who gets on, the woman who makes her way and establishes a place for herself in the world, must be above all things efficient. Efficiency is the one quality that tells. Half the failures of life are due, not to lack of brains, but to slipshod work, carelessness, inefficiency. It is the age of specialisation, when we must do things, not as well as other people, but a little bit better,^ if we wish to get on. Competition is very keen, but there is plenty of room for efficient workers in i every sphere of life? What tells in everyday life? What counts in the State? Efficiency. It is the efficient housewife, the woman who is capable and self-reliant, whose house runs smoothly^ and whose children turn out most satisfactory. It is efficiency that is needed in our Government, our army and navy, our health and hygienic departments, in every section of public hfe. The efficiency ideal, whether held by the individual or the State is a tremendous force for good. Efficient motherhood would solve the infant mortality question. Efficient work is the best preventative of unemployment. Efficient housewifery, hygiene, and cooking would ensure health in the home.

Woman has been handicapped for gen erations by being inefficient. Exact knowledge was not required of hereducation, efficient training, and teaching were practically reserved for men Even to-day the majority of girls have to be content with a smattering of knowledge, an, unfinished education which does not fit them for efficient work in any sphere afterwards. Fortunately for woman, and fortunately for the race, a new idea of efficient womanhood is evolving. Vast fields of usefulness are awaiting women on every side, and they have more and more opportunity for success as they become efficient To succeed to-day, men and women have to become efficient in three respects-work, health, and will power. ihQ best worker is not the cleverest person, but the man or woman who can be depended upon to do work efficiently w S° many bad vool™ in the W?J V - at no woman who makes herself efficient in this particular domestic art need ever be out of employment. Hundreds of households are suffering from the result of inefficient cooking Thousands of men are handicapped in health, spirits, and power of work because not one woman in fifty can boil a potato or cook a chop efficiently. ... Ihink of the misery, the physical and moral degeneracy due to mismanagement in the nursery! The problems of the badly-brought-up child are found in all classes, amongst rich and poor, well born and lowly of degree. Then there is the tragedy o f the inefficient working woman and business girl, the clerk without definite training the governess whose qualifications come to be insufficient for modern demands. Ihe hall-mark of inefficiency stamps the work of thousands of women who" must earn their daily bread and are yet handicapped by doing work in such a way that they cannot command respect and remuneration. If eve ry girl wh6 has to earn her living would make up her mind to get the very best training she could afford in her own particular hne, what a difference it would make! Hie efficient woman is always sureI'of recognition, and not one hour spent m honest preparation, in acquiring knowledge and efficiency, is wasted, Ihe time will come when every girl without exception will devote the years before marriage, the waiting period, the time that is frittered and lost by rune out of ten women, to useful work, blie will make herself efficient in the domestic sphere, in cooking, housewifery, and child management, so that the servant problem will solve itself automatically. She will, if outside work is to be her portion, secure a good training, which is one secret 01 business and professional success.